[Starflight frowned, wrapping his tail around himself as he sat down. He agreed that eating anything without checking it out first would be stupid, and he was a little offended this guy just assumed that's what he was doing.]

You're going to watch it? It's inanimate, I don't think it's going to get up and walk way or anything like that.

[He sat up a bit, slipping into his 'lecturing know-it-all' voice.]

Really if we wanted to make sure it was absolutely safe we would have to perform a number of scientific tests to check for poison or other contaminants, but that's not exactly practical considering how long it would take to run thorough examinations. Anyone with a decent sense of smell would be able to determine if any of the food is rotten and unsafe to eat, but visual examination would only be useful if you were inspecting each item closer.

Also I can't imagine the captains would have left it lying around if it was actually harmful to the crew. They didn't say to avoid it, just that there was a problem that needed fixing, which to be honest is a pretty vague and indirect notice and I think they should have been more direct.